Joe Cash, the chef behind Greenville's Michelin-starred Scoundrel, is opening a new restaurant in the Village of West Greenville called Dootsie's, an Italian concept named for his grandmother. The intimate space will serve Italian-inspired fare built around a blend of classic Roman pastas and Italian American comfort food, including a reworked take on spaghetti Bolognese.
The news comes from Greenville News, which reports that Cash is opening the restaurant in a comfortably intimate space in the Village of West Greenville. According to a release distributed by Hall PR, Dootsie's will blend classic Roman pastas with Italian American favorites, and the menu includes what the release calls a hot take on spaghetti Bolognese. The name itself is a tribute: the release describes it as an homage to Cash's grandmother, Dootsie herself.
The restaurant will also lean into theater in the dining room. Per the release, Dootsie's will feature an open kitchen as well as a glass-enclosed pasta room where guests can watch fresh pasta being rolled daily. Earlier reporting from Time Out indicated the restaurant was expected to launch this spring, with the outlet noting that when it launches this spring, Dootsie's brings its Roman-meets-Italian American menu to West Greenville, though that timeline arrived months before the current announcement.
From French Fine Dining to a Family Recipe
Dootsie's marks a departure for Cash, who built his reputation at Scoundrel, the French-inspired restaurant he opened in Greenville four years ago. That restaurant, located at 18 N. Main St., received a star in the inaugural Michelin Guide American South, a distinction Greenville Journal described as Greenville's first Michelin star in its coverage of the Michelin Guide announcement.
Cash's culinary resume stretches well beyond the Upstate. He spent four years at Per Se, the three-Michelin-star New York restaurant, before heading to Copenhagen, where he worked in the kitchen at Noma, according to the Upstate Business Journal. In 2014, after leaving Denmark, he returned to New York to become executive sous chef at Torrisi Italian Specialties, a stint detailed in his biography on euphoria Greenville's website — an early chapter in the Italian cooking background now resurfacing at Dootsie's.
A Neighborhood Known for Small Businesses
Dootsie's will join a dense cluster of independent shops and restaurants in the Village of West Greenville, a neighborhood that counts more than 150 small businesses, according to the Village of West Greenville's own count. The area has drawn other chef-driven concepts in recent years, including Take Care, a project from former Golden Brown & Delicious chef and co-owner Alex George and chef de cuisine Jen Anderson that the Upstate Business Journal reported was planned for 1233 Pendleton St. in the Village.
Exact details on Dootsie's address, pricing, hours, and reservation policy have not been finalized or made public. For now, Greenville diners know only what Cash and his team have shared: a family name, a glass-walled pasta room, and a menu that trades Scoundrel's French roots for his grandmother's Italian table.
